Media News

Morning Media Newsfeed 08.31.12

Paul Ryan Not Nearly the TV Draw Sarah Palin Was (Yahoo! News / AP) As a Republican National Convention speaker, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan isn't nearly as much of a draw as Sarah Palin. The Nielsen ratings company said an estimated 21.9 million people watched GOP convention coverage Wednesday night over nine networks. The marquee event was Ryan's acceptance speech as Mitt Romney's running mate. Entertainment Weekly / Inside TV More than 37 million people tuned in for her national introduction, including 9.2 million Fox News viewers. Ryan drew just over 20 million from the same networks. New York Daily News / David Hinckley We don't know yet how Ryan will compare to Palin as a vice presidential candidate, but as a TV star, she kicks his butt. HuffPost / The Backstory Related: Before Ryan left the stage Wednesday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, journalists took to Twitter for some real-time fact-checking. Soon after, several media outlets, including The Huffington Post, called attention to misleading statements from Ryan's speech. TVNewser Related: On night two of the Republican National Convention, Fox News Channel was once again the network more people went to to get their political fix. Time / Swampland What you missed while not watching the last night of the Republican Convention.

Robin Roberts Starts GMA Medical Leave Early: 'I'll Get Back As Soon As I Can' (HuffPost)Good Morning America host Robin Roberts moved up her last day before medical leave to Thursday. While Friday was expected to be her last day, the network announced that the GMA host would make her final appearance Thursday. CNN The mother of Roberts has died, ABC News reported early Friday. Roberts made it home to Mississippi to see her 88-year-old mother, who died Thursday evening, according to the news network. The morning show host was preparing to leave the show Friday to take an extended medical leave, but left a day early to help her ailing mother. Reuters Roberts, 51, revealed in June that she had been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome -- a disorder triggered by her treatment for breast cancer five years ago. Her older sister, Sally-Ann, will be the bone marrow donor. ABC News On Thursday's show, Roberts and fellow anchors Josh Elliott, Sam Champion, George Stephanopoulos and Lara Spencer announced that ABC News' Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric , Barbara Walters and Elizabeth Vargas will fill in for Roberts while she is away. TVNewser There are some logical names, but another one stuck out to us: Oprah Winfrey, who will be filling in during the 8 a.m. hour at some point during Roberts' absence. On GMA Thursday morning, Spencer mentioned Oprah's name, adding that she is appearing "because it's that important." Of course, Oprah's best friend, Gayle King, is the co-host of GMA competitor CBS This Morning. HuffPost But the network is also looking beyond the news division for the lighter portions of the show. Kelly Ripa, the cast of Modern Family, Rob Lowe and Chris Rock will all pitch in. No name stuck out as much as Oprah's, of course.

Behind the Latest Palin-Fox Fight (New York / Daily Intel) Sarah Palin's contract is up in January, and according to sources, Fox News executives are now weighing what kind of deal they would sign, if they sign one at all. HuffPost If Palin and Fox News were to divorce, it would not come as a total shock. Reports about the souring of Palin's relationship with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes have been in the media for a long time. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media Related: On Thursday, Palin accused David Chalian, the political director fired from Yahoo! News, for trying to change the context of her quotes in a 2008 interview and said she was "glad" that he had been fired. "That Yahoo! dude... I had to deal with him four years ago, too. He was the producer for one of the shows that did an interview with me, and then tried to change the context of my comments in that interview, so I've had personal experience with that guy," Palin told Fox News Thursday. "I'm glad that Yahoo! -- that he got canned."

Is This Thing On? Yahoo! Firing Proves the Perils of Feeding Many Platforms (NYT / Media Decoder) Webcasts have little of the audience of television, but all of the potential pitfalls. As digital enterprises move toward the complicated world of prompters, microphones and live commentary, it's clear that some eggs are going to get broken in making this particular new media omelet. Reuters / Jack Shafer Journalist David Chalian's crime wasn't what he said. I'm sure that if he had made the same statement in front of his Yahoo! News bosses, some would have nodded in agreement, and nobody would have laughed. His crime was rather where he said it, namely in public. HuffPost / The Backstory ABC News veteran Sam Donaldson offered his support Thursday for Chalian, one day after Yahoo! News swiftly fired the Washington bureau chief following a hot mic moment and ensuing media controversy.

CBS Hides ID of Navy SEAL Who Wrote bin Laden Book (Yahoo! News / AP) CBS News is disguising the identity of a retired Navy SEAL who wrote a book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden so it can protect "an American hero" -- even though other media outlets have said who he is. TVNewser To do so, they didn't turn to a computer or screen: they turned to Hollywood. CBS News Related: The Pentagon's top lawyer on Thursday informed the former Navy SEAL who wrote No Easy Day that he violated agreements to not divulge military secrets and that as a result the Pentagon is considering taking legal action against him, CBS News has confirmed.

Amazon Kindle Fire Sold Out as New Model Expected for Holiday Season (The Denver Post / AP) Amazon.com Inc. says it has sold out of its Kindle Fire tablet computer amid expectations of a new model for the holiday season. The Internet retailer has a major news conference scheduled for Sept. 6 in Santa Monica, Calif., where Amazon is widely expected to reveal a new model of the Fire. USA Today It's the latest sign that the book-selling giant has emerged as a major player in other fields, especially in Web services, and is now developing and selling mobile devices, too. NYT / Bits Amazon has always declined to reveal Kindle sales, and estimates have been all over the map. The company threw out a nugget on Thursday, saying the Fire had captured 22 percent of the United States tablet market. paidContent Amazon has never released an actual Kindle Fire sales number, so the 22 percent figure constitutes an unusual disclosure for the company. Even so, we don't know how large Amazon thinks the entire U.S. tablet market is. I asked the company but don't expect to get a number in response.

Twitter Unveils New Targeting Tool for Advertisers (Yahoo! News / AP) Twitter is offering a new way for advertisers to deliver their marketing pitches to the people who are most likely to buy their products and services. The targeting tool introduced Thursday allows ads to be sorted into different categories of interest. Once an ad has been tagged under a specific topic, such as "dogs" or "animation," it could crop up among the tweets of users whose activity has indicated an interest in those topics. WSJ Twitter's appeal to advertisers is crucial for the company to prove it has staying power as a big business. The San Francisco company has more than 140 million active monthly users but has been slower than Facebook Inc. in showing it can translate those fans into ad dollars.

Bing Now Lets You Search and Browse Your Friends' Facebook Photos (TechCrunch) Microsoft just launched a new search feature for Bing that lets you search your friends' photos on Facebook. This new tool, says Microsoft, is essentially an expansion of the photo experience Bing introduced as part of its redesign earlier this year. AllFacebook No, this doesn't mean those embarrassing photos from spring break are open for the general public to see on Bing. When you visit the site, you can only search for your friends' photos that have been made viewable.

With Obama Under Its Belt, Reddit Sets Sights on Mitt Romney, Kim Jong Eun (Forbes / Mixed Media) Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian took some time to chat with Forbes about the significance of Reddit's presidential milestone, the progress of the open Internet movement and his man-crush on Jay-Z. Poynter The tricky thing about Reddit, for newcomers, is that it's really not like anything else out there. Here's a basic guide. FishbowlNY It seems like everyone is doing an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit nowadays. President Barack Obama did one Wednesday, and now Frank Rich, writer-at-large for New York magazine, has done one.

Who's Up Next for T? (WWD / Memo Pad) The staff at T: The New York Times Style Magazine was shocked when editor-in-chief Sally Singer announced on Wednesday that she would be leaving the company by the end of the week. It appears the same could not be said for executives at the Times, who are already talking to a few possible successors. New York / The Cut Friday is Singer's last day as the editor-in-chief of T magazine, following an abrupt announcement of her departure earlier this week. No replacement has been named, prompting lots of speculation about who might be considered.

Are Zappos and Pinterest a Perfect Pair? (PRNewser) Shoe-seller/philosophy think tank/International House of Pancakes Zappos pioneered the concept of targeted ads, and they were one of the first companies whose ads would literally follow the user to other sites. Some found the practice to be slightly creepy, but it's been incredibly successful for the guys in Vegas. They're famous for their excellent customer service -- so how might they customize the user experience even more?

CNN Camerawoman 'Not Surprised' by Peanut-Throwing (Maynard Institute / Journal-isms) Patricia Carroll, the CNN camerawoman who was assaulted with peanuts and called an animal by two attendees at the Republican National Convention, told Journal-isms on Thursday that "I hate that it happened, but I'm not surprised at all."

U.S. Loses 472,000 TV Households in the Last Year (TVNewser) Nielsen is out with its annual list of the top TV markets. And while there are no big changes -- New York is still No. 1, Los Angeles No. 2, Chicago No. 3, and Glendive, MT is still No. 210 -- the company estimates there are now 114,173,690 U.S. television households. That's down 472,620 (.4 percent) from last year as more households forgo TV and get their video news and entertainment from the Web and Web-enabled devices -- or choose not to get it at all.

Orange County Register Adds Staff While Other Papers Downsize (JimRomenesko.com)The Las Vegas Review-Journal announced Thursday afternoon that it's eliminated several newsroom management positions, including managing editor and city editor. Just as that news came down I received a memo that said the Orange County Register is adding 23 positions.